1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus that records and reproduces data on and from an optical disc. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process of recording data on a minus format DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW or a plus format DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW, and a process of reproducing data from the minus format DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW or the plus format DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, DVDs (digital versatile discs), which are optical discs that can record information such as a large amount of video/audio data like that of movies, have been increasingly widespread. As these DVDs, various types are known such as a DVD-ROM containing information that is pre-recorded by a manufacturer and cannot be rewritten by a user, a DVD-R or a DVD+R that allows the user to record information thereon only once, and a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW, or a DVD-RAM that allows the user to rewrite information thereon repeatedly. Information recorded on these DVDs can be reproduced by DVD players (optical disc reproducing apparatuses) or DVD recorders (optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses), and information can be recorded on a DVD+R, a DVD+R, a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW, and a DVD-RAM by using DVD recorders. In the following description, a DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW will be referred to as a “minus format DVD” and a DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW will be referred to as a “plus format DVD”.
In conventional optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses, if a recording error occurs while data is being recorded on a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD, a write retry is performed a predetermined number of times on an address at which a write of data has unsuccessfully been done. In a case where write retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over to record data on the next address. On the other hand, at the time of reproduction, a read retry is performed a predetermined number of times on the address at which the recording error has occurred. In a case where read retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over and data is read from the next address.
For example, JP-A-2000-076785 discloses a conventional recording/reproducing method by which, if a defective block is found while data is being recorded on or reproduced from a DVD, the found defective block is ignored to continue recording/reproducing of data. Alternatively, a defective block registered in an SDL (secondary defect list) is skipped over, and, in the case of a new defective block that is not registered in the SDL, location information thereof is registered in the SDL entry after recording/reproducing of data is completed.
Now, as described above, in the conventional optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses, if a recording error occurs after a write of data is started to record data on a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD, a write retry is performed a predetermined number of times on an address at which a write of data has unsuccessfully been done. In a case where write retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over to record data on the next address. On the other hand, at the time of reproduction, a read retry is performed a predetermined number of times on the address at which the recording error has occurred. In a case where read retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over and data is read from the next address. This disadvantageously causes time loss in recording/reproducing.
Incidentally, the conventional technique disclosed in JP-A-2000-076785 relates to recording and reproducing data on and from a DVD-RAM. This makes it impossible to apply this technique to a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD due to a difference in the data structure of the disc.
On the other hand, an apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2002-329321 records a track number of a CD in a PMA (program memory area) as a skip ID if recording is not performed properly, and, at the time of reproduction, the track corresponding to the skip ID is skipped over. This makes it impossible to apply this technique to a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD due to a difference in the data structure of the disc.
Furthermore, JP-A-08-087829 discloses a data managing method for an optical disc, by which an error block is skipped over at the time of data reading by referring to a write error block management file provided in a control unit. However, it is not clear what is referred to here as the optical disc is a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD, and a specific recording/reproducing process for such a DVD is not disclosed therein.
In view of the conventionally experienced problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus that prohibits reading from an address at which a recording error has occurred at the time of recording data on a minus format DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW, or a plus format DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW.